TheatreWorks Florida gets permanent home in Davenport

Thursday

DAVENPORT — With an audience standing and watching, it was a 15-minute preview of what organizers and leaders hope will be an ongoing series of the performing arts in Davenport's future.

Thursday, in what was once a public school built in 1927, TheatreWorks Florida (TWF) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony, drawing back the curtains on the 10-year-old theater company's efforts for a permanent home and steady schedule of performances. TWF is a an award-winning professional theater company, offering current musicals and plays and original works from area artists and artists from around the United States.

The ceremony was highlighted by a short presentation of TWF's upcoming performance of "Winter Wonderettes," running Dec. 1 to 17. It's a sequel to TWF's presentation of "The Marvelous Wonderettes," a musical comedy which used pop songs from the 1950s and 1960s to tell its story, paying homage to the high school music song leader squads of the 1950s.

In the TWF facility at 8 W. Palmetto St., about 100 people conversed, had hors d'ouvres and met with the founders and organizers of TWF, which is helping to bring the theater arts to north Polk County.

The nearest community theater is the Haines City Community Theatre 3½ miles south of TWF.

Near the entrance to the TWF social hall, Scott Cook, TWF artistic producer and Abel Gonzales, company manager, greeted and welcomed guests as they entered. Around the hall, tables for snacking and conversing and holding TWF literature were set up, with posters from the company's plays set up around the room.

Cook said he was grateful to have officially opened the former Davenport Community Campus, which had been abandoned, into the TWF facility and theater and was appreciative of the Polk County School District, which permits TWF to use the 90-year-old facility for free.

"It's amazing to me. I think our community was stunned by the transformation," he said. "It has wowed people and they can't believe this is sitting right here in downtown Davenport."

Fellows said he has been behind TWF's efforts since it was founded and was "blown away" by the TWF "Marvelous Wonderettes" performance he saw in September.

"I lot of people have encouraged this sort of thing for a long time and it's finally becoming a reality," said Fellows. "The more we grow and get diverse, we need more activities for people to want to come see Davenport and stay in Davenport.

To get the TWF theater functioning and usable, Cook said about $18,000 to $20,000 in upgrades were made to the stage, lighting and sound, financed by grants and private donations. Additionally, 125 theater seats were donated by the private Montverde Academy school in Montverde, northeast of Clermont.

TWF produced its first musical, Disney’s “High School Musical,” March 3, 2008, in the Polk Theatre and then used facilities outside Davenport because there was no permanent home venue, although the company did borrow some space from its creative partner, Florida Southern College.

Cook said most of its theater work had been done outside of Davenport because at that time, there was no solid audience for arts and culture. He said in the first years of TWF, there wasn’t a need for a permanent Davenport home because the company mostly toured and installed shows for other Central Florida theaters.

Beck, who is an associate professor of theater arts and department chairman at Florida Southern College, said he was excited about the opportunity to create original shows and "raise theater to a higher level" by bringing professionals in to TWF and Davenport. He said the permanent home will enable TWF to present more shows in a time frame selected by its administration, not by staff at another venue.

"We needed a venue in this area of the county where we could employ pro actors. TWF started without a home and we revised our game plan. Now we have a place," he said.

For TWF information, call 407-340-0473 or see www.theatreworksfl.org

Paul Catala can be reached at paul.catala@theledger.com or 863-802-7533. He can be reached at Twitter @pcat0226.

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